You definitely made the last beer run. No way you should have to go out again.
You just got back! It’s dark and cold and December. Your bones are still shivering from that polar vortex.
Seriously, you just sat down.
Miller Lite believes you. Just get delivery.
This weekend, MillerCoors LLC will offer free delivery of Miller Lite in four U.S. cities for customers who order through an online store it developed with an alcohol delivery company, Drizly Inc., The Wall Street Journal reports.
The promotion from MillerCoors LLC marks the first time a major American brewer has partnered with an e-commerce firm to sell its beer online. Customers in Boston, New York City, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. can buy 12- and 24-packs of Miller Lite through the website and it will be delivered to their homes.
This is big news for the alcohol-distribution industry, which is still governed by many Prohibition-era leftovers. So far, only wine is sold online in large quantities, but typically not for the purpose of immediate consumption.
But this Miller Lite delivery promotion also appears to be the latest effort of entrenched beer giants to make their cervezas attractive to Millennials, a younger generation of beer drinkers whose preference for craft brews has contributed to declining sales of the world’s biggest brewers.
Call it hipster capitalism if you want (doing so may make you complicit in the spread of hipsterdom—be warned), but beer production is becoming more local, yielding a livelier product, and sustained from bottom-up demand. Localization is improving the quality of the beer industry.
The number of craft breweries in the United States grew over 15 percent from 2012 to 2013, as we have reported in the past. Of craft breweries, regional breweries and microbreweries (a brewery that produces fewer than 15,000 barrels of beer per year) have exploded.
After prohibition, government restrictions made it increasingly difficult for small breweries to operate. By 1900, there were nearly 2,000 breweries in the United States, but by 1980 there were 101. Along with the decline, the overall industry remained highly concentrated. In 2000, the leading breweries Anheuser-Busch, Miller, and Coors still controlled 81 percent of the market.
Today, there are again well over 2,000 breweries operating in the United States, and 2012 set a record number of 2,751 breweries, as reported by the Beer Institute in 2012.
What led to this good fortune? In part, Jimmy Carter.
The original sweater pioneer legalized home brewing in 1978, which allowed hobbyists to tinker again. And in 1983, California and Oregon legalized brewpubs, encouraging other states to do the same, writes the New York Post.
Today, the popularity of home brewing has led big breweries to introduce new products to quietly capture craft beer’s popularity. Anheuser-Busch released Shock Top and MillerCoors released Blue Moon, for example.
But beer Goliaths are not just adding to their product line or trying new distribution and delivery methods to get their beers in your hands. They are also adjusting their advertising.
Budweiser’s parent company AB InBev will not feature the brand’s signature Clydesdale horses in their holiday advertising this year. The famous Clydesdales have showcased the brand during the Christmas season since 1987, but this year they will be booted as the company opts instead to concentrate future promotions on the 21- to 27-year-old market.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTbLBL2P6YA&w=560&h=315]
I’ll miss those horses, actually. Look how cute a little tyke he is. And look how powerful and muscular and farm-y an adult he is. (The horse, I mean.)
But children get older and companies need to accommodate changing tastes, a taste for convenience included. Miller Lite’s home delivery is the latest sign of that.
Weigh your options carefully. Everybody loves the guy who makes a beer run – so long as he comes back with the right beer. Sure, never leaving your home is great. But do you really want to finish the night with Miller Lite?
